At the End
by Demon-Something
Summary: ...you must look back, regardless of who you are. A story of Yellow 4.
1. Yellow 4

**A story made with no ownership of any material. Namco Bandai owns the game Ace Combat 04: Shattered Skies and all settings and characters.**

You are often told that at the brink of death, your life flashes before your eyes. You are Yellow 4, and you find it different. Your mind spits out clean facts, without hesitation, automatically. All as you spiral.

You were born sometime in April, 1973, in a town in what was to be known as Whiskey Corridor. You are 31 years old as of early 2005.

Despite a prospering Erusea at the time, your parents had nothing to their name. Nothing, that is, except you. You never knew what happened to them.

You were left in the care of a government sponsored foster home shortly before your first birthday. A drought was occurring at the time, perhaps your parents couldn't feed you, perhaps they died of starvation and you were found, but it still doesn't matter. You are left as a ward of the state, with no idea of who you were. No family, no home, and not even a birthday.

You were always quiet, growing up. You grew up in Group Home #6, 385 Fatima Street in Anchor Point City, Erusea. It isn't there anymore, but there was an Army Reserve Airfield three blocks from Group Home #6. You often snuck out to the Army Reserve Airfield. There, you saw ancient MiG-15s take off, but the age of the planes did not matter. Instead, you were enthralled in the power, the roar, and the sleekness of fighter aircraft. This stayed right up until the end…right until _now._

When you were 8, you found a wonderful piece of lilac fabric with lace. This was a linen handkerchief. In a normal home, in Farbanti or Oured or Emmeria, this would just be a slightly ostentatious, if nice looking handkerchief. To you, it's something beautiful. You aren't quite acquainted with beauty. You kept it in your pocket at all times. You forgot it today, left behind as you spiral.

When you turned 17, you asked to leave for the Air Force. This was considered a respectable profession. This relieved the caretakers of Group Home #6. Group Home #6 was best known for molding Anchor Point's whores and gang-bangers into who they are today. They let you leave without question.

You were sent to the Air Force Academy in a small town in the Lambert Mountains. The Lambert Mountains are beautiful. They are known for snowcapped peaks, ski-slopes, and clear, crisp skies. Anchor Point has none of these.

You devoured your class material with relish. You wanted to know more, to get ever so closer to finally clutch the stick of a fighter. You were the top member of your class. You excel in Basic Flight Training, then in more advanced flight courses.

You never had any friends while there. This pays off when you are sent to Aquila Squadron when you graduate, _summa cum laude_. It is there you met Yellow 13.

Yellow 13 never looked like a movie hero. His face is a little too rounded out, his eyes a little too relaxed and wise. Nonetheless, he is still the handsomest man you have ever seen. You dispel those kinds of thoughts as you are honed into a master pilot.

Yellow 13 took a liking to you, liked how you flew, your professionalism, your deadly accuracy. But there was always something in his slight smiles, the way he made eye contact with you. You don't quite know it for a while.

One day, you looked into the mirror for a few seconds longer while brushing your hair back to put into a ponytail. It is then that you realized that you are pretty. Yellow 13's actions made sense at that point.

From then, you smile back at him, look at his eyes for just a little longer. You enjoy it. Yellow 13 enjoys it. You are too cautious to take anything further, as is Yellow 13. This is not a good place for those kinds of thoughts, which drift leisurely into the front of your mind, the ones that take hold of you and make you sigh and fall into a melancholic state. This state is similar to the one you feel now, as you spiral.

The year is 1998. The year 1998 was not a particularly good time for the Usean continent. Erusea is on the Usean continent. The Usean continent is tumultuous. The tumult is due to Ulysses1994XF04. Ulysses1994XF04 is an asteroid. It was discovered in December 1994, and is expected to strike on July 3rd, 1999. This agitates people, despite Stonehenge. Stonehenge is a network of guns covering most of Usea. It only covers half of Erusea.

This causes a coup d'état. The coup is led almost entirely by the collected navies and air forces of Usea. Aquila Squadron is sent to quell the rebellion. You fight the rebels with impressive skill for a novice. You become an ace. You claim 12 kills during the rebellion. You are the pilot with the third highest amount of kills. Number Two on the list is Yellow 13.

He is your squardon leader, but you still cannot dispel your thoughts. He is too handsome, too charismatic, and too wise. He is perfect. You decide to use your prettiness to your advantage. You invite him for a couple drinks one evening. He accepts. You have a long conversation. The two of you laugh. The two of you are smitten. You make love with him at a two star hotel near the airbase, taking too much time to get back. Suspicions eventually died.

You spend more time with Yellow 13; share more of your affections. A few other base personnel knew, but they ignored it. They blamed it on Ulysses. People did irrational things before Ulysses struck.

Ulysses eventually struck on its predicted date. It broke into approximately 3000 fragments, some of which burned up in the atmosphere. Other impacted across the Usean and Anean continents. Stonehenge was not effective. Downtown Farbanti was destroyed. Farbanti is the capital of Erusea. The legislative branch of the Erusian government met in Downtown Farbanti. They were in session around 8 P.M. on July 3rd, 1999. None of them survived the impact.

Your hometown, Anchor Point, is also impacted, if not directly. Anchor Point is in the middle of the desert, on a river. A Ulysses Fragment struck that river. This created a tidal wave, swamping the docks and lower areas of the city. The river dries up after that. Anchor Point was abandoned. You don't feel that bad over it, you never liked Anchor Point.

After Ulysses, there is a governmental panic. The military takes over. The military feels vengeance towards Usea. Usea failed to save them with Stonehenge, which Erusea helped to fund and build. Usea got foreign aid. Erusea didn't.

There was a war over these hard feelings. Aquila Squadron is the best squadron in Erusea. You are sent to newly conquered territory, the city of San Salvacion. With new surroundings and new people, you and Yellow 13 choose to temporarily end your relationship. You regret this. You wish for Yellow 13's touch now, as you spiral.

For the first part of the war, you perform excellently. You bring your total number of kills above thirty. Yellow 13 has sixty-three. He is quite possibly the best pilot in the world.

Then, things change. Usea unites, and regroups. They attack again, ferociously. They have their own ace, their own Yellow 13. He is called Mobius One. He is deadly. Mobius One is deadlier than you.

You learn this over Stonehenge. Mobius One has long since destroyed Stonehenge itself. Your squadron is too late to stop that. Mobius One does not care. He thirsts for blood. It is your blood he feasts upon.

The attack is short. He charges at Aquila Squadron head on at speeds you did not think possible. You squadron begin to break, but he is too fast. You are only operating on one engine, the other long past its time for replacement. As you begin to break left, he fires an AIM-7 Sparrow air-to-air missile at your plane. You are too close to do anything. The missile strikes the underside of your plane, and you faintly see a gray blur, presumably Mobius One's plane, pass by you, only yards away. Then you begin to spiral out of control.

Your plane has lost both of its engines and likely its tail assembly. You do not care. Your ejection handle will not work. You have resigned yourself to your fate. You wish for Yellow 13's touch. The desert spreads wide before you.

"_The 1__st__ of April," _you think, _"That should have been my birthday."_

It now seems fitting; your life has been reduced to a cruel joke, so why couldn't your life have started on the day of them.

You appeared on the steps of Group Home #6 as if you had materialized from the desert. It is now time for you to dispel and return to the sands. You take one last breath of oxygen, and close your eyes as your plane hits the ground. You have no more memories to recall after that.

**Just something I whipped up after completing the Stonehenge Offensive. Please review.**


	2. Yellow 13

**Once again, I own nothing, Bandai Namco does.**

You are Yellow 13. You are the leader of Aquila Squadron, better known as Yellow Squadron due to the color of your wingtips and the underside of your plane. That, along with your extraordinary skill, has made you feared.

You were born on July 24th, 1970 in a town in the Amber Mountains. They have always been home to some kind of army. Ancient citadels stand of the crests of hills as if to expect a new army to surge into the heart of Erusea. However, Erusea is naïve. Erusea does not expect to be conquered, for it never has.

It is to this Erusea that you are born. It is for this Erusea that you will die.

As a child, you were ruthlessly inquisitive, and very intelligent. You have a respectable amount of friends, but you aren't "popular" like the kids on imported Osean TV. Your parents love you and there for you. You are positively ordinary. You float through school, waiting for destiny to strike and guide you on the railed track that is the rest of your life.

You graduate from high school, and finally, your destiny dawns on you. The Air Force calls to you, and you decide to join. Your parents insist on you becoming an officer, and you agree with that idea. You get to study abroad at Bana College in Osea, then receive instructions for flying on a military scholarship. You excel at your classes, but it isn't until you get to the planes do you learn your true ability. You find you can control the trainer F-5 with delicate ease. You can take that plane and glide it through the sky in ways that astound your instructors. You graduate at the age of twenty-three, early. You graduate into an unsteady time.

Belka's aggression is flaring, and they threaten to engulf its new neighbors in the Belkan quest for pride and stability. You wish to help the nations of the Osean continent, and you get a deferment in your service to join a mercenary company with the promise to join the Erusian Air Force by 1998.

You fight in the Belkan War where you rack up thirty kills. You see many of your colleagues die. It's disillusioning, and you hesitantly return to Erusea at the war's conclusion.

You have been asked if you're the so-called "Demon Lord," subject of many stories, books, and at least four TV documentaries. To that, you were frankly, tight-lipped and you're not quite sure if you are yourself.

You join a squadron, but soon it is made known that your skills are superior to even Erusea's most skilled pilots. So in mid-1996, Aquila Squadron is formed so that you can give your skills to many trainee pilots. You are hesitant to take the job; you are not much older than these trainees, but you still accept. High Command gives you a brand-new Su-37, and you begin your work.

It is here you meet Yellow 4. She is beautiful, she is talented, and she is oblivious to your crush on her. You maintain a strictly professional relationship until one night where she smiles at you. You fall in love almost immediately.

The Usean Rebellion of 1998 happens soon afterwards. You gain an additional fifteen kills. You grow tired of the military and war, with its spontaneous chaos and false promises. However, you do not know what else to do, so you carry on, with Yellow 4 by your side. She proves to be a constant member of your squadron, and just as good a pilot as you. You still can't help but notice how beautiful she is.

One day, Yellow 4 takes you to a bar outside of base. After you down a few shots, and she's had two beers, your eyes meet hers. You know its mutual love from high school crushes, but it's never felt so real, so intense. The two of you consummate your feelings and return to base, where everyone else pretends nothing goes on between you and Yellow 4.

Ulysses strikes and things go crazy. The Legislature is dead. The military now rules. You are seen as some sort of poster-boy for the Erusian spirit. You're interviewed, paraded around, and idolized, but you feel like a pawn in a wicked game.

Your fears are realized when Erusea decides to invade ISAF. You will never understand why Erusea would invade the countries who five years ago, were Erusea's closest allies, but you follow your orders and mow down fleeing ISAF troops as they retreat to North Point. You know you're just following orders, but that's the _sickest_ excuse ever but you just don't know what to do.

You are stationed to San Salvacion, a charming and once completely neutral city. Yellow 4 ended your relationship with her for fears of truly being found out, and you are despairing too much to truly care.

One day in San Salvacion, a boy lurks behind the corner of a wall in Aquila Squadron's favorite bar, the Sky Kid. You are the first to notice him, and the harmonica in his hand. You invite him to play with you, and he does. He's good, and you learn he was one of the first war orphans. You take him in, knowing he has nowhere else to turn.

This boy becomes your son, in a way. You feed him, clothe him, teach him, and you grow to love him as if he were part of your family. He gives you the slightest hint of purpose to even be in this war, but it still wearies you.

Then, when Erusea was just about to win the war, the tables turned. The Aegir Fleet was lost, then the Faith Park solar power plant. Rebels set off a bomb on your runway. Yellow 4's engine replacement is destroyed in the blast. Then, ISAF attacks Stonehenge. You arrive too late to save the facility, but one of the pilots doesn't care. He is Mobius One, and he is to be reckoned with. You only fully realize this when he shoots down Yellow 4, quickly and cleanly.

When you return to base, you hold her handkerchief, speak with the Boy, but it still doesn't even begin to fill the gaping maw of despair that has opened in your chest. Then, on a late night, the Boy calls you a fascist pig, defending a friend who sabotaged the runway.

This seems to be the final straw; you have nobody left for you. Your parents are dead, Yellow 4 is dead, and the Boy wishes you were dead. You hate Erusea, but you are hated for being Erusian.

Eventually, Erusea loses San Salvacion, and you return to Erusea via emergency retreat. You never see the Boy again, and you still hold Yellow 4's handkerchief and tuck it into your flight suit. Finally, it becomes clear that Erusea has lost the war, but you don't care. You have absolutely nothing more to lose. So you and your squadron take to the skies over Farbanti for one last battle. It is there you find Mobius One. He has a gleaming new Raptor, and he can match your every move. He shoots down your squadron, one by one, each a stab to your chest. When only you are left, you initiate the grandest dogfight the world has ever seen. There are twists; there are turns, dives, climbs, rolls, sharp thrust-vectored maneuvers and Pugachev Cobras. After seven long minutes, you realize the truth. There is nothing you can do but lose. So you give up. You keep your plane flying straight and level. Mobius One fires a missile, and you prepare to join your beloved Yellow 4.

**Please read and review.**


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